AHL announces format for Calder Cup 2003 Playoffs
Published on July 12, 2002 under American Hockey League (AHL) News Release
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. . . . American Hockey League President and CEO David Andrews has announced that the league's Board of Governors has approved the renewal of the existing Calder Cup Playoff format for the 2002-03 season. The decision was made after consideration at the Board's annual meeting in Hilton Head Island, S.C., this week.
At the conclusion of the 2002-03 regular season, the top 10 teams in each conference will qualify for the Calder Cup 2003 Playoffs, allowing at least two-thirds of National Hockey League teams' prospects to gain valuable postseason experience. The three division winners in each conference will be seeded 1-3 based on record, and the postseason will begin with a best-of-three qualifying round, pitting the seventh seed against the 10th seed and the eighth seed against the ninth seed in each conference, with the higher seed hosting all games in this round.
In the best-of-five conference quarterfinals, the first seed will face the lower-seeded qualifying winner (8, 9 or 10), the second seed will face the higher-seeded qualifying winner (7, 8 or 9), the third seed will face the sixth seed and the fourth seed will face the fifth seed in each conference.
The conference semifinals will match the highest remaining seed against the lowest remaining seed and the second-highest against the third-highest in each conference. Those series winners will advance to the conference finals to determine the participants in the Calder Cup 2003 Final. Each of the last three rounds will comprise best-of-seven series.
In 2002, the Chicago Wolves entered the postseason as the seventh seed in the Western Conference, survived their qualifying series in three games, and went on to capture the Calder Cup in their first season in the AHL.
Entering its 67th season with an all-time high of 28 teams competing, the AHL serves as the top development league for all 30 National Hockey League clubs. The 2001-02 season was the AHL's most successful to date, seeing an expansion from 20 to 27 franchises and an all-time high in average attendance, with nearly 6.7 million fans attending games across North America. More than 75 percent of all players to compete in the NHL in 2001-02 were AHL graduates, and 350 players took the ice in both leagues.
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